Hiking Mount Holly

On Saturday, September 6th, Jillyn, Kenny and I set out to conquer Delano Peak. Delano, at 12,173 feet in elevation, is the high point for both Beaver and Piute Counties. One more peak I need to complete my goal of hiking the highest in every county.

Things went well at first, it was a gorgeous day and after a little hunting found the trailhead. We chose to take the long route, approximately 10 miles round trip with about 2,200 feet of vertical gain. There is another route that is about three miles round trip with just over 1000 feet of vertical gain, but that seemed too easy so we opted for the longer route.



The trail started through a densely forested area just above the Mount Holly ski area. At least it used to be Mount Holly. I think it took the name of Elk Meadows for a while and now I think it has become a private resort or something, who knows what the name is now. The trail is quite moderate and the going easy for the first few miles. There is a lot of down timber but the trail has been maintained recently. All the reports I had read on this hike said that this trail was easy to follow until it starts the ascent of the peak, then it is just scrambling up the mountain. I had done my research and thought I was well prepared but I made a few mistakes. I traced the route on my mapping program but forgot to load it on my GPS. The second mistake was that I read the map wrong. We came to a creek in a grassy area beneath a huge mountain we thought was Delano so we started climbing. Kenny tried to tell me we were on the wrong mountain but I didn't listen and when we were about half way up Mount Holly I decided he was right. We knew we were less than half a mile from the top but the GPS said Delano was still almost two miles away.



We decided to continue to the summit, and then see if we could go on to Delano. It was too far to go back to the trail we had left and start over. I'm glad we continued as Mount Holly is an awesome mountain. I found an arrowhead along the slopes and we sighted mountain goats feeding near the top. We finally got close enough to one group of goats to get a photo, then they disappeared down the other side which is nearly sheer cliffs. There were two other groups over on Delano. One looked like around 30 or more, the other about half that. They are really easy to spot as their white coats really stand out against the darker colors of the mountain.



As usual on these high mountain peaks the wind was blowing and it was cold enough to put on a jacket. As we looked toward Delano Peak, it seemed a little daunting. If we took the high route by staying on the ridgeline, we would have to make a scramble up some fairly steep slopes. Not that it was impossible, but Jillyn's shoes didn't have the best tread and it would be slippery, and we all agreed it would be tough. We decided to descend the canyon between us and Delano and see if we wanted to hike it from the west side. Once we reached the bottom we decided it was too much for us to tackle that day and so we continued down to meet the trail we should have stayed on longer.



It's a good thing we didn't try Delano. When we got back to the vehicle we all agreed it would have done us in. Although we didn't summit Delano, we did summit Mount Holly and got a chance to experience the high country of the Tushar Range. I plan to go back in the near future and try Delano again. I think next time I will take the easy route.